I turned the compass over.
There was an engraving on the back.
Not military.
Not ceremonial.
Three small words.
COME HOME WHOLE.
I stared at them.
Then I remembered something Mom had said during our last long conversation.
She had asked when I planned to stop volunteering for every difficult assignment simply because I was good at them.
At the time, I had dismissed the question.
Now the compass felt heavier.
Dad noticed my expression.
“What is it?”
I closed my fingers around it.
“There’s something I haven’t told any of you.”
Madison looked worried.
“About Lantern Bridge?”
“No.”
“Your job?”
“Sort of.”
Three months earlier, I had been offered another senior assignment.
A prestigious one.
The kind of assignment people built careers around.
I had accepted in principle.
It would mean another move, another demanding schedule, and likely several more years of putting everything else on hold.
